Jade Moncada '24 Recruiting Profile

My name is Jade Moncada. I am a Senior at Gilroy High School in Gilroy, California. I’m 16 years old, turning 17 August 10th. I’ve only played field hockey for my high school team my junior year and now my senior year. I had a tough leg surgery in December 2019  to fix an incident from when I was 4, followed by another surgery in  April of 2021 this time for both of my legs. I had been out of sports for 2 and a half years returning back full time in October of 2021. I was very dedicated to getting back to playing sports and came back strong and kept improving over time. I’ve played soccer since I was 4 and field hockey since the beginning of  6th grade. With some guidance from many coaches, parents and counselors, I have decided to keep my main focus on field hockey and play soccer only for my high school. 

 I am a bilingual student, love being involved in school activities and helping out at the activities as well while also benefiting from it. I go to as many high school sports games as I can learning from my Sports Medicine teacher when someone gets an injury out on the field. I plan on taking AP Spanish, English Literature and Gov & Econ this upcoming year. Along with Vet Science, Marine Science and Sports Med ll as my electives. I struggled a lot my freshman and junior year for personal reasons but have dedicated myself to do better in school and have a good transcript report for my senior year. 

I was selected this year to play in the 2023 U18 Nexus Championship in Virginia Beach. It was my first time trying out for any Nexus related field hockey and it was a great experience. In addition, my team placed first this year at the Cal Cup International tournament in the U18’s division. As a bay area field hockey team, we don’t travel very much for tournaments. But in January we did attend Winter Escape in Florida. There were many good teams out there but we tried our best and played our game. 

This high school field hockey season I have made it a goal to make First Team All League and Senior of the Year. Last year I made second team all league while still being out with a sickness for 4 of my league games. As a team, we made it a goal to win CCS this year with last year being so close losing in the semifinals. In league we went 19-0-1 being the best record Gilroy High school has had in any sport, We plan on going 20-0-0 this season. I love my field hockey team. Everyone sees each other as equals and supports one another. My high school team makes me feel comfortable and we have one of the best team connections. When it comes to captains, I have never been one to run for captain. I find the voting very biased and don’t need a badge to tell me if I'm a good leader and teammate. I can do what a captain can without it and that's perfectly fine. 

Throughout my years of being an athlete. I have been told many times how coachable and reliable of a player I am. I really appreciate every coach that has ever coached me in both sports. They take their time to help me improve as a player and I see myself becoming a better player everyday with their help. I’m a good adapter when it comes to being introduced to a new coach and their style of play. Which is one reason why I think I would be a suitable player for any college that would love to have me on their team.

In the future, I plan on either becoming a Marine biologist or Veterinarian at a 4-year university or state college. While also continuing to play the sport I love for a couple more years. My dad has done a lot for me speaking sports wise. He was out on the field with me helping improve a certain skill I wanted to get better at. Pays a lot of money so I’m able to go to all these camps and tournaments, plus hotels and gas. It all adds up in the end. So I’m also dedicating myself to get a scholarship to a college for field hockey so it’s one less thing for him to pay for or pay less for. It’d be a really good feeling to have knowing all the hard work paid off.